LOS ANGELES, CA, November 07, 2025 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Phyllis W. Cheng, Esq., has been selected for inclusion in Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.

Phyllis W. Cheng is an accomplished attorney mediator and strategic problem-solver, serving on the neutral panels of ADR Services, Inc., the California Court of Appeal (Second and Sixth Appellate Districts), and the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. She previously led the Mediation Practice Group at the Central District for four years, continues to train new mediators for the Court, and has been featured in the Daily Journal's Resolution Issue cover story and virtual mediation article.

Over her distinguished four-decade career, Ms. Cheng has successfully resolved a broad spectrum of disputes—including employment, wage-and-hour, civil rights, class actions, Title IX, and appellate matters—for individuals, businesses, and public agencies. Prior to her full-time mediation practice, she was a Partner at global firm DLA Piper, Of Counsel at employment firm Littler Mendelson, and an Associate at civil rights firm Hadsell & Stormer, where she honed her expertise in employment and civil rights law.

Ms. Cheng served in four California gubernatorial administrations, including that of Governors George Deukmejian, Pete Wilson, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown. For nearly seven years, she was Director of the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH, later Civil Rights Department), the largest state civil rights agency in the United States. During the Great Recession, Ms. Cheng oversaw six and seven-figure judgments and settlements, the largest systemic cases in a half century, filed over 500 actions on behalf of Californians, and spearheaded significant reforms to the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA). She also established DFEH's dispute resolution division, special investigations unit, an automated complaint system, and forged educational partnerships with law schools and colleges.

Earlier in her career, Ms. Cheng served as a Senior Appellate Court Attorney in the California Court of Appeal, Deputy Attorney General in the California Department of Justice, and Vice Chair of the state's Fair Employment and Housing Commission and Comparable Worth Task Force, and member of the Commission on the Status of Women. She began her professional journey as Title IX Coordinator of the Los Angeles Unified School District, founded an independent commission to monitor a Title VII class action consent decree promoting women administrators, and played the leading role in enacting California's version of the Title IX law.

A prolific author and editor, Ms. Cheng is managing editor of California Fair Housing and Public Accommodations (Thomson Reuters, The Rutter Group Civil Litigation Series), writes the California Labor & Employment Case Law Alert for the California Lawyers Association, and served as managing editor and is a columnist for the California Labor & Employment Law Review. Her articles also appear in the Los Angeles & San Francisco Daily Journal, Bender's Labor & Employment Bulletin, and other legal publications.

Ms. Cheng's many honors include her 2024 induction as a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, her 2012 Ronald M. George Public Lawyer of the Year award from the State Bar of California, and her May 2014 cover story in Inside Counsel Magazine. She is a frequent speaker at national and regional conferences.

Ms. Cheng received her B.A. and M.Ed. from the University of California—Los Angeles, J.D. from Southwestern Law School, and Ph.D. from the University of Southern California, where she was a James Irvine Fellow in Urban and Regional Planning. Her doctoral dissertation, The New Federalism and Women's Educational Equity, focused on the adoption and implementation of state laws banning sex discrimination in education.

A 1963 immigrant from Hong Kong, Ms. Cheng speaks three Chinese dialects—Cantonese, Shanghainese, and Mandarin. Long a United States citizen, she endeavors to give back to her adopted country, which has given her the freedom and opportunity of the American dream. A parent of three children, Ms. Cheng is working on a coffee table book that features her mother's Chinese watercolors and pioneering legacy. In her spare time, she is a glass fusion artist, cyclist, wild flower gardener, barbeque enthusiast, and American Red Cross blood donor for life (17 gallons to date).

About Marquis Who's Who®:
Since 1899, when A. N. Marquis printed the First Edition of Who's Who in America®, Marquis Who's Who® has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field of endeavor, including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion and entertainment. Who's Who in America® remains an essential biographical source for thousands of researchers, journalists, librarians and executive search firms around the world. The suite of Marquis® publications can be viewed at the official Marquis Who's Who® website, www.marquiswhoswho.com.

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